Education enhancements

The facility upgrades at Blue Lake have enabled the Blue Lake Forest Education Society to expand their youth programs

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Photo courtesy Jody McInnes

Adults who went through the school system or spent summers in the East Kootenay may have fond memories of camping at Blue Lake. Until recently, those same cabins that housed kids in the 1970s were still performing that same function. Head to Blue Lake now, though, and there’s an impressive sight to behold: a number of new buildings now grace the site.

“As far as the facility upgrades for this project, we built eight new cabins and renovated two existing ones,” said Jody McInnes, the general manager for the Blue Lake Forest Education Society. “We renovated our dining hall with new flooring and new countertops, built a new washhouse and renovated some other buildings that were up there. A major part of the project was building a lodge and training centre.”

The training centre will be used for a remarkable pilot program targeted at older teens. Staff at Blue Lake work closely with foresty consultants and environmental management agencies, and were aware of a decline in the number of forestry graduates.

“For example, there used to be around 100 graduates from the forestry program at UBC, and last year they had 27,” said McInnes. “The jobs may be on the decline but there’s still going to be a need for people in these positions, and a lot of people in them are going to retire over the next couple years. That’s a concern for a lot of people in the area, so we thought, ‘What can we do to address this?’”

A committee was formed and partnered with the College of the Rockies. They consulted with both forestry officials and contractors, resulting in the idea for a place where youth could receive hands-on training, preparing them to enter a job in the forest industry. The program was met with much adulation from the contractors, who also saw the potential for it as a refresher course for current employees.

“It’s not replacing anything as far as post-secondary,” said McInnes, “but it’s stepping into it as sort of a showcase—get into a job and see if that’s where they want to go.”

Once the program had been designed, it was clear that Blue Lake would need upgraded facilities to host it. A grant through Western Economic Diversification’s Community Adjustment Fund provided $1.2 million for the project, and building began in February of 2010. Building has halted for the summer but much of it has been completed; building will resume again in the fall. More than 90 businesses were involved in the project in varying capacities.

The new site is also wheelchair-accessible and has been constructed keeping in mind that kids are the main tenants of the buildings. Blue Lake is open year round and hosts around 2,000 kids every year, including many school groups.

With these enhancements, it is clear that the Blue Lake Forest Education Society is committed to providing a high-quality, educating and fun experience for youth.

“We needed such an upgrade and this has provided us with an opportunity to keep going for another 30 years,” said McInnes.